Forever

“I am.” My voice shook.

“Good.” His smile was slow, his voice purposeful. “I vow to always look at you like this.” He knelt so that we were at eye level. “I vow to love you forever. I vow to take care of you when you’re sick. I swear to love you even when you put on weight. I promise to protect you, to provide for our family… but the biggest promise, the biggest commitment I believe a man can make, is to vow to treasure his wife above all else. So, right now, my ’do over’, my gift, my vow, my promise, my oath — is to keep you first. When I wake up, my first thought will be Nat.”

He reached for my head and cupped my chin. “Nat, the first word on my lips, the first person I think of in the morning, and the last person I think of when I close my eyes. My world has shifted — I don’t want to be in the center. Instead, I want to revolve around you. I choose to make you first and me second. I choose to put your needs above my own. Never will you have an insecure day. From this moment on you’ll always be perfectly secure in who you are, because my love for you won’t have it any other way.”

Warm tears streamed down my cheeks. “I like that promise.” I tried to keep myself from full-on sobbing… pregnancy hormones and all that.

He wiped some of my tears and then kissed me hard on the mouth, only pulling back to say “I love you” over and over again. Alec picked me up from the chair and carried me to the bed, kissing every inch of my body until I was so high from his touch that I was convinced I was going to explode.

“What’s your name?” Alec asked as his lips grazed my ear. He hovered over me and moved his left hand up my thigh.

“What?”

“Your name,” he growled, pulling my body underneath his so that we fit perfectly. That’s what I’d been missing, his body and mine moving together in perfect sync.

“Nat.”

“Not good enough.” I felt lost as his body left mine. And then his mouth was on the inside of my thigh. I nearly jumped off the bed.

Clenching the sheets between my hands, I tried desperately to hold on to my sanity — but that was basically impossible, especially with a naked rock star in bed with me.

My world exploded just as Alec asked for the third time, “Your name?”

“Who cares?”

“That’s my girl.” He chuckled and then all laughter stopped as he made me his over and over again murmuring his love into my ear until we both fell asleep

Chapter Twenty-One

Demetri

The ride to the airport went way too fast. I wasn’t ready to stop kissing Alyssa. Hell, I wasn’t ready to go on tour yet, but I’d screwed around long enough for the last year. It was time to finally go back to work.

We made our way through security without being recognized by too many people. It helped that we were technically supposed to be at my brother’s wedding still. We’d planned it that way so we didn’t get hounded. Besides it was around nine at night, so the airport wasn’t exactly buzzing with lots of people.

Alyssa and I were able to board early since we were in first class — something I always insisted on when we flew together. I couldn’t care less where I sat, but I wanted her to be comfortable and happy. Shit, I’d learn how to fly a plane if I knew it would make her happy.

“Can I get you anything, Mr. Daniels?” The flight attendant smiled at me and completely ignored Alyssa. I reached for her hand just as she stood up and walked past the flight attendant, going into the tiny bathroom and locking the door behind her. “So?”

I sighed. “I’m good with water, though I think my girlfriend may need a shot of whiskey after she realizes what I’m about to do.”

“About to do?” A confused expression crossed the flight attendant’s face.

“Yup.” I nodded. “I need a favor.”

She smiled. “What kind of favor?”

I grinned in return and nodded my head. “The big kind.”

****

By the time the flight took off I was nervous as hell. The flight attendant got everything ok’d by the pilot, which meant I was really going through with my insane plan. To make matters worse, the flight was completely booked — over three hundred people were going to be witness to my display. Hopefully Alyssa would be receptive, or it was going to get a hell of a lot more awkward for everyone.

Once we were at our cruising altitude, the flight attendant nodded her head at me.

I stood and pretended to stretch. Alyssa was so absorbed in her magazine she didn’t even notice that I’d opened up the storage compartment and pulled out my ukulele.

Shaking like someone who’d never done a live performance in his life, I walked to the front of the plane where the flight attendant held up the PA. I grabbed it and cleared my throat.

“Hey, everyone…” I sounded like I’d just hit puberty. Great. “I was just wondering if I could get everyone’s attention for a bit. You see—” Alyssa looked up, her eyes widening in horror. Determination soared through my body. “You see there’s this girl.”

“Always is,” a man said from the front row.

I laughed. “This girl, she’s everything to me, and well… I want her to know how much I love her — she needs to realize that she’s my life, my soul, my everything — but here’s the thing. As a musician, it’s hard for me to convey with mere words what I really feel. I mean, how does a person describe the sunset to someone who’s never seen it? How do you describe love when what you feel is so incredible that you can’t form words? Honestly, I’m convinced words that describe how I feel about Alyssa — they only exist in Heaven, not here. So, with that being said… Lyss, I choose you.”